Gotham Falls
by NIGHT09
Summary: AU- The Batman is dead. The villains take over Gotham. Innocents die. Nightwing has to take them down, but he’s a little preoccupied. So he calls in a favor from an old friend. (Titans disbanded years ago)
1. Prolog

Disclaimer: I don't own anything here, nothing, nada, zip, zero, zilch.

Prolog:

Gotham. It was the most crime ridden city in the country, but the Batman worked hard and long to make it safe for the people. He was known by all as a hero. Key word being was. He WAS a hero. He WAS great. He WAS alive, but he isn't anymore. Joker saw to that. Joker's last act was to blow up an entire building, there was no way out. Joker and Batman died together, and Alfred died of a heart attack when the building came down.

The story featured in the papers though, was how Bruce Wayne had died that weekend of a heart attack and Alfred Pennyworth of a broken heart. Then how Richard Grayson inherited a fortune and is the new caretaker for Tim Drake, Damian Wayne, as well as Wayne Manor.

The funeral was huge and extravagant, everything Bruce would hate but the public would love. Alfred and Bruce were buried next to Thomas and Martha. There was a separate funeral for those who knew Bruce's secret pastime. All the justice league members came, all the batman protégées came, Catwoman came, Red X came, and many Teen Titans came. It was held in secret, but it was huge. The Batman was mourned, most held him in the highest respect. He was human sure, but he was just as powerful, if not more, than any other hero because of it. Everyone was shocked about the death but again, he was only human. His life and his accomplishments were celebrated.

In the public eye, after the funeral, Tim Drake was sent back to his private school in England which was really the Young Justice team in Rhode Island. Richard Grayson came back to Gotham and stayed in the Wayne Manor.

But the criminals, they saw this as an opportunity to take control of the city. Bane, Mr. Freeze, Black Mask, Poison Ivy, Riddler, Two Face, Penguin, and Scarecrow all teamed up to take the city and with no Batman to stop them, they did. The police were ineffective at stoping them, causing many deaths. In one weekend, Gotham belonged to the villains. No one hero had stopped them because of the mourning. Each villain took a territory, to watch and control. Bane took Narrows which is a small island where Arkham is located, he was to make it into a villain pub and meeting place. Him not having much brains, took this land even though it was extremely small compared to everyone else's territory. Mr. Freeze took the South Channel Island as his territory and set up shop for a lab to do more research. Two Face took the west side of Uptown, getting North point, Grant, West Village, and Bay Side. Scarecrow got the east part of Uptown, getting South point, South PT, and Randall. Midtown was all taken by Black Mask. Downtown was split in half between Riddler getting the west and Poison Ivy getting the east. Riddler took China Basin, Upper West Hill, and West Chelsea Hill. Whereas Poison Ivy took Cobble Hill, East Park Side, and Central Heights. Finally, Penguin took the small island of Sandy Hook. After all the cities were taken most bridges off the main islands were destroyed except for Sandy Hook Bridge, Carter Bridge, and Adams Bridge. Some bridges between the islands were blown up as well except for Sandy Hook Bridge, Midtown Bridge, Narrows Bridge, the Narrows Passages, Roxbury Bridge, Webb Bridge, and Goat Bridge. _(A/N: For this story Wayne Manor is going to be located where Trillium Park is)_ Wayne manor fell directly in Poison Ivy's territory but she and Bruce Wayne had a friendship once, so she left the Manor alone.

Each territory was overrun, controlled by the villain and their laws. No where was safe. Passage between territories was illegal without job clearance directly given to you from your territories crime lord or henchman, and anyone who opposed said lord would be punished, if not killed. This was a dark time for Gotham. This was when Gotham fell.

 _Author Notes: This is the beginning of a much larger story, I hope you enjoy. Also to fully understand what I'm explaining you might need to google a Gotham map. Gotham's basically a few islands right next to each other, some big some small, in the Atlantic Ocean. The story image is a map of Gotham, just to give you an idea of what it looks like_


	2. The Call

She was woken up from her sleep by an annoying sound. She quickly jumped up and ran to the phone, ready to curse whoever woke her up this early in the morning.

"Hello?" She asked, swiping her raven black hair up into a ponytail and checking the caller ID. It was Richard.

"Rae," he answered, and immediately she was wide awake.

"How was the funeral?" She asked.

"You didn't go?"

"I couldn't, you know Zatanna doesn't trust me. I didn't want to turn the funeral into a battle, Bruce deserved more respect than that." She explained, thinking about the League's mistrust of her.

"Well thank you for that," He told her, feeling genuinely thankful for the thought.

"So, why did you call?"

"I need help."

"You know I retired."

"I know, not that kind of help." He answered with a chuckle. "I need a favor."

"What is it?"

"The manor, 2'clock tomorrow."

"You know they don't let people move between territories without a work pass."

"A friend will pick you up and get you across. Just… trust him." He trailed off.

"Who?"

"Let's just say you won't like it, but he owes me a favor, so trust me, okay?"

"Okay." She answered as he hung up. "What did you get yourself into this time?" She muttered to herself with a sigh as she started her morning workout, not being able to fall back asleep.


	3. The Meeting

Rachel POV:

It was around 1 p.m. when I heard the knock on my door. My eyes immediately snapped open from my meditative state and I got up slowly. I trust Richard, but it was obvious that this contact of his was not a good guy. When I opened the door, I saw what looked to be a normal man there.

"Grab your things and let's go," he commanded.

"And who are you?" I asked the man with a bit of sass. He was tall with extremely captivating sea-foam green eyes. He seemed muscular, through his jeans, red t-shirt, and leather jacket. His hair was black with a small white streak down the middle, it fell in his face just like a heart throbs hair in a romantic movie.

"I'm your way out of here," he replied as he pushed past me into my apartment. "Get what you need now," he demanded, "We are on a schedule."

"Get what?" I ask him, shutting the door behind him.

"Food, phone, and a change of clothes." He replied, as he looks around my apartment. I choose to not argue, for now, and grabbed what I need and put it in a purse.

"Done."

"Good, we're going. Follow me." He demands as I fall in pace behind him. He sneaks me out the back of my building and around a few other apartment buildings before I stop him.

"Why are we sneaking around? I'm allowed in this territory." I asked him.

"You might be gone for a little while and Richard doesn't want you to be reported." He replied.

"Who are you?" I demand. If he spoke directly to Dick, then he must be an ally of some sort so why would Dick think I wouldn't trust him? What's the deal? I must be missing something.

"Who are you?" He counters.

"You don't know?" I wonder, raising an eyebrow. This is odd.

"I have a few theories, but all the information that Dick gave me was that he needed to get you from Bay Side to East Park Side, crossing 4 territories, and that I was the best person for the job." He explains to me as he starts advancing forward again, me trailing behind him.

"So, what are your theories?" I question, my curiosity getting the better of me.

"Lover, hero, or enemy." He replies.

"None of the above," I answer with an eye roll.

"But you didn't question why I said hero, therefor you know his secret hobby, so…. you're a liability," he remarks, sounding proud of himself as if he just figured it out.

"I'm a friend," I comment, running into his back only now noticing that he stopped.

"Don't move," he whispers, and I stayed so still you could have mistaken me for a statue. After about a minute of two of this, his stance relaxes, and he moves forward. "Be quiet and follow me."

"Like I have a choice," I mutter with an eye roll following him into an abandoned building about 10 stories tall. Once inside, he starts climbing the stairs and I follow. We climb for a little while until we reach a door, he opens it and all it is, is a room. "What are you doing?" I hiss, as he walks in. He looks back at me, grabs my arm and pulls me up to the window he's standing at.

"Look," he demands, and I look out the window.

"It's a bridge," I comment.

"That bridge, it's the way out of this territory. It crosses over in Freeze's land." He tells me.

"I know that, Sherlock. Isn't that why Richard got you? To get me across?" I sneer. "I could've easily gotten here on my own, the bridges are your problem."

"Someone's cocky. Without my help, you'd be dead." He declares, giving me a glare. I shake my head and look back down at the bridge, it can only be accessed by vehicle. No walking, biking, or running. There's guns and goons on each side in case someone tries to run, trying to escape their leader's clutches. But no one's stupid enough to take that kind of chance unless they are being hunted.

"So how do we pass it?" I ask.

"We get a lift," he grins. "Do you trust me?"

"No," I snorted.

"Probably a good idea," he chuckled, "but you're going to have to go along with my idea."

"What idea?" I quizzed.

"You'll see," he chuckled, as he started the track back down the stairs, me following close behind.


	4. First Bridge

Okay, I've gotten a few reviews asking about why Raven doesn't just use her powers and there's a reason for that. It will be explained more later on but she's trying to be normal and powers are not normal. She's trying to move on from being a Titan so only the most extreme of situations could possibly make her consider using her powers.

XXXXX

"You're stupid." I insulted but he just laughed.

"Probably but come on. We've got to get across." He told me.

"So, we're just going to get in a crate in a truck and hope that they don't check the boxes?" I asked him, highly annoyed.

"This is a relaxed bridge, one of the very few, they won't check." He told me as he finished opening one of the boxes from the truck we were in, illegally.

"You better hope not, because if we get caught, you won't have to worry about Mr. Freeze or Two-Face, I'll kill you myself!" I declared, watching him get into the box.

"Come on, get in so we can close it up." He smiled. "I mean some girls would kill to be in this position." He told me with a smirk.

"Oh, the position where they can screw that box shut and throw you in the river, I'm sure. In fact, I'm considering doing that right now." I replied getting into the box.

"Come on, you know you like me too much to do that." He remarked, still smirking as he closed the box.

"Just shut up so we're not caught." I hissed and we both stopped talking.

It was awhile until we heard a noise that wasn't trucks being checked for passengers, thankfully no one checked the boxes we were in when they were at our car. But in the territories, each side has to check some boxes, so they know their people aren't trying to sneak in and other territories' goons aren't trespassing with a mission to kill. But we made it past both check in's… eventually. This guy was right about something, this bridge was going to be the easiest to get past. I've only heard stories of the other bridges, and the torture they subjected to the attempted escapees. The car we were in screeched to a halt, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"Hey, wake up." I whispered, hitting what's his face. He still hasn't tell me his name.

"What?" he groaned, sitting up only to hit his head on the top of the box.

"We're in the territory, let's go." I replied.

"Fine," he sighed and popped off the cover from the box. We each got out quickly and looked around, thankfully whoever the driver was, was busy at the moment allowing us a clean get away. We got away from the entrance of that bridge, avoiding suspicion and walked into town. Eventually, after him leading me around for about an hour in silence, I grabbed his arm and pulled him into a nearby alley.

"As much as I like silence, I need to trust you to keep following you." I told him, "So I'll ask again, what's your name?"

"What about privacy or secrets?" He smirked, dodging my question.

"Screw privacy, I have to trust you to not get me killed. I'm just following you blindly so give me a name." I demanded.

"Bob," he replied.

"Your name," I glared.

"Fine, my name's Jason. And you?" he asked.

"Rachel," I answered. He nodded and pushed past me, leading me away again. Every once and a while he would look back to check to make sure I was still there behind him. Eventually we made it to Roxbury bridge, and hid away in the back of a car again. But everyone knows Mr. Freeze's bridges are the easiest to cross, we were in for a challenge with the rest. We eventually got across the bridge a little before sundown and then we were in Black Mask's territory. Jason seemed worried and it showed. I just hoped that whatever he was going to do, he would be smart about it.


	5. Teleporting

Sorry if my updates are kind of slow, I'm trying to update as fast as I can but I have a lot going on. Anyway thank you for all the positive reviews, they really make me want to write and I hope you enjoy.

Disclaimer: I own nothing

"Follow me and be careful," Jason told me, stressing the word _careful_.

"Yeah sure thing boss," I sarcastically quipped but quieted down after that, following him around for a little while. After walking for a few minutes, I could see he was nervous. It was just the way he walked, talked, and moved, but I wasn't sure why. Still, I kept quiet through the territory until I saw some of Black Mask's goons approaching and pulled him by the shirt into an alley behind me.

"What was that for?" he hissed but then I pointed to the guards who walked past where we were just standing.

"I was saving your ass, you idiot." I replied, taking a step back only to hit something solid and it wasn't a wall. In a matter of seconds, I turned around to find four large men wearing Black Mask's symbols pointing their weapons at me and Jason. Jason still didn't notice them. "Psstt," I hissed taking a step back, but he didn't pay me any attention.

"Be quiet," he told me.

"Pssttt," I tried again, and he turned to see the guards staring us down.

"Oh…hey fellas," he smiled. "What a lovely day it is to go uhhh," he started looking for an excuse for being in that alley. "Dumpster diving. Isn't that right Rae Rae?"

"Yeah," I lied.

"Now come on," he smirked at me as he held his hands out and crouched down next to the dumpster we were standing next to. "I'll help you up."

"No no, it's okay. You go first." I hissed.

"That's it, you're both coming with us." The largest man of the goons growled, moving toward us.

"At least it's not a dumpster," I replied but before I could finish, Jason grabbed my hand and we were suddenly somewhere else.

"What the hell?" I muttered, suddenly feeling extremely dizzy.

"Teleportation side effects." He told me. "The Xenothium does that to you. Usually though you would have fallen over and blacked out only to wake up and throw up. Unless you've teleported before," He informed me.

"Well I guess it wasn't a strong this time or something," I brushed it off not letting him know that I used to teleport a lot. Of course, I never used Xenothium so I did feel somewhat nauseous and dizzy but not enough to pass out.

"I guess," he sighed.

"And if you could teleport us this whole time then why didn't you?" I demanded pointing a finger at the middle one of the three Jason's I saw.

"Because after stealing for all these suckers, they found a way to track my belt right after I jump, tracking it for about 5 minutes. Annnnndddd it takes two minutes until we can jump again. Plus, it only jumps about 100 feet so until I fix it, this stupid belt is practically useless." He growled, sounding annoyed.

"And if we do before then?" I asked.

"Our insides could end up on our outside." He told me. "Now let's go, they're probably already on their way here."

"Yeah sure," I sighed, trying to move forward, fast, only to end up with my face on the concrete and my nose in extreme pain. But soon after, I was picked up and I saw Jason running while carrying me in his arms. Pretty soon, I found myself at the border of Black Mask's territory with only water to the side of me, well after a one-hundred-foot drop that is. Finally, when I felt like I could properly walk, Jason let me down.

"So, what do you say to your hero?" He asked me.

"What hero?" I replied.

"Me." He stated. "I saved your life."

"So?" I asked.

"So, don't the princes always get a kiss in the movies." He smirked, while wiggling his eyebrows.

"You're definitely no prince so that rule doesn't apply here." I smirked. "Let's go."

"Oh, how you wound me fair lady." He grinned.

"Shut up," I rolled my eyes and paused for a few moments. "How do we get across?" I asked him looking to the next island about 2 miles off water away.

"Ever go cliff jumping?" He asked me.

"No," I replied as my eyes went wide. "I'm not jumping!" I yelled at him but right after he picked me up and he jumped off the side.

In a matter of seconds, we hit the water and started going down fast. Quickly I swum to the surface but my head being so dizzy, I was going slow. I saw Jason get to the top and move around a little, probably looking for me. My vision started to go a little blurry as I saw him dive back down and then I felt arms around me. After a few seconds I could breathe again, and I opened my eyes to see that my head was above water. Looking around I saw Jason swimming to a small cave and I followed. When I got inside, I pushed myself up onto some rocks and looked around.

"I can't see anything," I spoke softly, trying to look around.

"Just give me a second," He replied. In a few moments the lights turned on and he came back over to me. "You okay?"

"I'm fine, but where are we?" I wondered, getting up and looking around. There were lightbulbs leading to a large steel door which seemed to have an eye scanner on the side.

"Old Batman hideout," Jason told me as he scanned his eye, a second later the door opened.

"Woah," I gasped. It was huge for being a cave. There was everything here from electricity, to computers, to food, to beds, to games, to weapons.

"I'm guessing Dick never showed you the manor, huh?" He asked me.

"Why would you say that?" I asked.

"It's way nicer than this dump." He told me, smirking.

"This dump is nicer than my apartment." I replied.

"You know I wasn't going to say anything, but it totally is." He grinned as he walked over to the kitchen/bar area. "What do you want?"

"What's on the menu?" I asked.

"Hopefully you?" He grinned.

"Ha-ha, but really like is there even any food here?" I asked, and he opened up the fridge to show me it was fully stocked. Soon after he pulled out some random ingredients and started cooking us some food, while he was stirring a pot on the stove, something popped into my head. "How did we teleport earlier?" I asked him.

"I was wondering when you'd ask that, it's a Xenothium belt." He told me. "Dick made it originally."

"Red X?" I demanded jumping back from where I was standing, trying to separate myself from him.

"The one and only," he smirked and rolled his eyes as he looked back at me. "No need to fear, Dick hired me to get you. If you were damaged, I'd be in trouble, plus your starting to grow on me."

"Wish I could say the same," I sarcastically quipped.

"Anyway, why would Dick willingly send me to get you if he didn't trust that I'd do my job. Think about it. He could clear his busy schedule for a few days if he really didn't trust me." He told me, and I slowly slinked back to my chair only a few feet away from him.

"Why does he trust you?"

"Trustworthy face I guess," he laughed.

"How did you find out his identity?"

"I've always know."

"How did he find out your identity?"

"He recognized my moves."

"But he didn't know who you were even after many battles with you."

"He recognized my moves, just thought it was impossible because he thought I was dead."

"That's why you were at the top of his shit list." I concluded.

"Yeah pretty much," he replied. "How'd you know that he didn't figure out my identity sooner?"

"We talked," I told him simply, not lying. He'd probably think though that I meant over the phone. After that our conversation ceased and we were both left to think, in a silence only being broken by the sizzling of the pans on the stove.


End file.
